On Conforming the Civil Order to the Natural Law

Catholicism alone shall be recognised as the true religion and putative laws solemnly condemned by spiritual power shall be ipso facto suspended and putative laws solemnly condemned by the highest authority in the Church ipso facto declared null and void. Citizenship shall be dependent upon baptism and the rights of citizenship upon communion with the Roman Pontiff.

False monotheistic cult by the non-baptised shall be tolerated in private insofar as it does not in the abstract conflict with the natural law and in public insofar as it does not conflict with the common good.

All Sundays and holy days of obligation shall be public holidays and commercial activity forbidden. The sale of meat on days of abstinence shall be forbidden.

The civil courts shall have no direct jurisdiction over minors who are subject to the jurisdiction of their families unless those families forfeit that jurisdiction through actions intrinsically incompatible with the good of the child.

No person shall be deprived of his life by public or private action from conception until natural death unless pursuant to a sentence of death pronounced after a criminal trial upon the verdict of a jury of his peers for crime which threatens the maintenance of the rule of law. All other homicide shall be punished by law under the severest penalties.

No true marriage may be dissolved by any human power. The civil power has no jurisdiction over the marriage bond which is exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the spiritual power. Unnatural unions shall be punishable by criminal law.

The lending of money at interest to individuals with unlimited recourse shall be punishable by criminal law. Only the income and not the assets of the citizenry may be taxed. Inheritance may not be taxed.

The propagation of false accounts of Christian doctrine (as identified by the spiritual power) shall be forbidden and punishable by law. The testimony of persons refusing to take oaths in the name of God shall not be heard. The propagation of atheism or polytheism shall be forbidden and punishable by law.

All forms of pornography shall be forbidden and punishable by law.

Commercial advertisements outside of commercial premises in which the goods advertised are sold shall be forbidden and punishable by law.

I can see issues with advertising, but your restriction is ridiculous. There are plenty of new, good products that customers should know about, but unless they know about them (through advertising) they would not physically go to the store in the first place. Also, people often buy items online, so they wouldn’t be going to the “premises” anyway. We don’t live in the 1500s, and most people don’t have weekly fairs or markets to buy items at stalls.

Beyond that, surely there’s a distinction between “coveting thy neighbor’s goods” and “expressing interest in items that one’s neighbor is offering for sale because that’s his job.”

I am not suggesting that advertisements are contrary to the natural law merely that a highly commercialised culture is a serious occasion of sin and should be avoided. As St Thomas observes “if the citizens themselves devote their life to matters of trade, the way will be opened to many vices. Since the foremost tendency of tradesmen is to make money, greed is awakened in the hearts of the citizens through the pursuit of trade. The result is that everything in the city will become venal; good faith will be destroyed and the way opened to all kinds of trickery; each one will work only for his own profit, despising the public good; the cultivation of virtue will fail since honour, virtue’s reward, will be bestowed upon the rich. Thus, in such a city, civic life will necessarily be corrupted.”

“The civil power has no jurisdiction over the marriage bond which is exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the spiritual power. Unnatural unions shall be punishable by criminal law.”

One of the other rules mentions monotheistic cult among the non-baptized. In the case of the non-baptized (such as Jews and Moslems), are they allowed to divorce? Because the (true) spiritual power on earth (the Church) doesn’t have much say over their marriage customs. If they’re allowed to divorce, is the Catholic state recognizing some sort of parallel community, like an Ottoman millet, for resident Jews and Moslems? Would their community leaders have some sort of authority?

What about miscellaneous non-baptized groups or individuals of no particular religion who just opt out of the Catholic revival inaugurating this state? Would just expect them to leave on their own, or maybe help buy them a one-way plane tick to relocate? I mean this seriously.

(2) If taxes fall on income, not assets, won’t those who can forgo income for assets? If my boss owes me 10,000 for this year’s work, it makes sense, on your scheme, to take that payment not in cash, but as a share in an asset — say a share in a house and its income. Apart from all the other stuff you get when you tax income but not assets — inequality, principally — the scheme you propose seems to encourage some wasteful speculation in property.

The shipwright returns! It is not intended at a requirement of natural law but as a way of preventing the creation of a monied rather than a landed elite. Although, it seems to be at least inheritance tax is contrary to natural law. Things not Caesar’s need not be rendered to him. Taxation should relate to monetarised transactions.